The Calvin Bedell Story

October 20, 2009

The other day, I made a bunch of excuses why 2strokebuzz has been pretty bereft of life lately, but this one tops them all:
On Friday, Vina and Milena decided last-minute to go to Indiana to visit her family. I stayed home, because I had a lot to do around the house, and I wanted to catch up on 2strokebuzz and Scootmoto. Plus, 2SB contributor Brooke was coming to town Sunday.

So Saturday morning I’d just taken some photos of the new Bumpstart and some neat new Buddy light adaptors we’re going to sell at Scootmoto. I was cleaning up the images for the web and listening to records with our friend/tenants’ dog Lucy, who I was watching for the weekend, when the phone rang.

It was Vina’s dad, who told me Vina, Milena, and Vina’s sister Jen were driving to a pumpkin farm and had been T-boned by a pickup truck who ran through a red light at 40mph. Our new Subaru was totalled, and my 8-month-pregnant wife and my daughter were on the way to the hospital.

Needless to say, I lost my shit. Earlier that morning, I’d promised to meet my old friends Kim and Ken at their son’s soccer game down the street, so I raced over there on my bicycle, crying like… well, like someone who’s just been told his wife, child, and unborn son were in a car accident. After a few more phone calls, I learned Milena was a little banged up but mostly OK, Vina was a little worse, but the main concern was the baby. Vina had gone into contractions as a result of the accident, and the doctors were worried about placental abruption. They decided to deliver the baby ASAP, a few weeks early. I was two and a half hours away, in Chicago, without a car. We hadn’t even packed our bags for the hospital yet.

In the end, Kim drove me to Portage, IN, and Jen’s friend Jackie picked me up there and took me the rest of the way to the hospital, saving them both the full round-trip. I arrived in South Bend in the middle of the Notre Dame/USC game, and after 20 minutes of running around an empty hospital (South Bend shuts down on Saturday afternoons, stupid Domers), I found Vina already in the recovery room, with our new baby, Calvin Thomas Bedell. Calvin (7lbs, 19.5″) was born on October 17, 2009 at 17:17 EDT in the same hospital where his mother, and probably her mother, were born. I’d missed the birth by a half hour or so.

Vina and Milena are both doing well, and Calvin, despite being early, is doing great and looks just like a smaller version of his sister when she was a baby. Milena, having been admitted to the hospital, managed to briefly sneak her way into the recovery room to see her new brother, but thanks to the swine flu scare, no children visitors were allowed at all, so she hasn’t seen him since Saturday afternoon. She came back to Chicago on Sunday with her grandmother so she didn’t miss any school. Vina and Calvin were discharged from the hospital this (Tuesday) morning and will stay in South Bend for a few more days to recuperate. I came back to Chicago this afternoon to be with Milena, and so Vina’s mom could go back to Indiana.

So thanks to some monster truck jackass in a hurry, I missed the birth of my son, we lost our second car in a year, and 75% of my family would be dead right now if it wasn’t for seatbelts and Subaru engineering. It’s not all sunshine. But it looks like everyone’s going to be OK and we have a beautiful son. In a few days, when we’re finally able to get all four members of my family together in the same room for more than five minutes, the last thing on my mind is going to be 2strokebuzz. So thanks again for all your support and patience, we’ll be back soon.

Thanks to the dozen-plus people that rushed around all weekend to help drive us around and help us out, and watch pets, and to get Milena to and from school and keep Brooke entertained, and everything else. And thanks for all the calls, emails, visits, facebook comments, tweets, etc. I honestly don’t think anyone in the world is lucky enough to have a better collection of friends and family.

And thanks to Vina. As we were assessing our situation in the hospital room, she started to panic that we didn’t even have a car seat. “We have a car seat.” I said, “Kim reminded me to bring it. But we don’t have a car.” And we cracked up. At least we still have each other, and two kids who are already probably smarter than we are.

OMG! I almost started crying when I read this! I am thinking about you in a big way and can’t wait to see more pics of the Mom and baby. Is there anything you need for the kid? I have stuff left over from Dutch that I would love to pass on….Let me know.

Give Trac and babe (& Millenia :)) a huge huge for me.

stefan on
October 21st, 2009 8:23am

wow. guardian angels workin’ overtime in the bedell house!

glad there was a happy ending, my best to you and the family.

susan on
October 21st, 2009 9:07am

Oh geez! I saw the pic of the new babe on Flickr, but I had no idea.

I’m so happy to hear all are safe and sound. I can’t imagine what you had to go through, wow.

Ugh! The idea of you being in that situation (crying on your bicycle) ties my stomach in knots. I’m sorry you (and your family) went through all of that… but I’m also so relieved that everyone (except the Subaru) is in good condition.